Spaces of Protest: Seydina Issa Sow's Campus Graphic Novel Sidy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Seydina Issa Sow's comic Sidy (2019) depicts a young man from the countryside who travels to Dakar, Senegal to study law at Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD). When the eponymous character arrives, he is disappointed to find overcrowded dormitories and lecture halls. As students protest these conditions, Sidy's friend Abdou supports him and leads a fight against injustice. Although protest has been portrayed negatively in earlier comics such as Goorgoorlou and can lead to violence and harm, Sow's text suggests the generative possibilities of protest under certain conditions. In recent decades, scholars have examined UCAD students’ attempts to create spaces of belonging on campus, whether through protest or other means. Sow uses French with occasional Wolof, as well as recognisable campus iconography, to differentiate the university from the rest of the city, thus distinguishing between students and other groups of young people. Shifts in the comic's panel transition strategies indicate that protest can alter students’ relationships to space. This article examines the text's representation of language, iconic structures, and movement through campus and urban locations to insist that protest creates productive but limited spaces of inclusion.